The U.S. Coast Guard has broken ground on a new facility at its Los Angeles/Long Beach base that’s expected to become home to the service’s newest additions to its fleet.
Located in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, the new $35 million, 11,500 square-foot Naval Engineering Department facility is scheduled to be an extension to the existing Maintenance Augmentation Team building that will support the Coast Guard’s first two offshore patrol cutters.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the support facility in
late July.
The 360-foot Coast Guard Cutter Argus and Coast Guard Cutter Chase are under construction and expected to arrive in late 2022/early 2023. The offshore patrol cutters will join four 154-foot fast response cutters – Forrest Rednour, Robert Ward, Terrell Horne and Benjamin Bottoms – and the 175-foot buoy tender, the Coast Guard Cutter George Cobb, currently stationed at Base LA/LB.
Once completed in October 2022, the facility will accommodate about 60 personnel who will provide maintenance, weapon, and naval engineering support for the fast response and offshore patrol cutters, according to the USCG.
In addition to the building, a new 257-foot pier extension is to be built to make room for the Chase. Improvements are also slated for the existing Electronics Support Detachment and warehouse on the base.
“Every Coast Guard mission starts and ends at a base,” U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area commander Vice Adm. Michael F. McAllister said. “This new cutter support facility will enhance the capabilities of future Coast Guard cutters to meet critical mission needs in a demanding and constantly evolving maritime environment.”
The two offshore patrol cutters are the newest vessels in the Coast Guard’s fleet. The state-of-the-art ships are scheduled to replace the service’s 270-foot and 210-foot medium endurance cutters and will be used to patrol the open ocean in the most demanding maritime environments.